What Matters
by Takari-san
Summary: HoroTamao, dedicated for our b-day boy - Horo Horo, a somewhat friendship fic that borders on romance


**What Matters**

**Pairing: Horo/Tamao (Friendship-ish)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King just VCD's of the series…**

Takari-san: A romance/friendship thing about Horo and Tamao for Horo's b-day! HAPPY B-DAY HORO! ^^ I hope you enjoy this. This is a Horo/Tamao work of mine after quite a long time ^^ ENJOY!

Slowly walking towards her destination, Tamao clutched her cleaning materials tightly then prepared to turn the doorknob. She sighed in relief, after cleaning the bathroom; she would only have very little to clean in Yoh-sama's onsen. She smiled then turned the doorknob.

The door flung open to reveal…

A boy unbuttoning his pants, or rather shorts.

She screamed in shock and the boy smiled at her and laughed heartily…

She gaped at the young man who didn't seem to mind her presence as he unbuttoned his shorts.

"Sorry there, I must've forgotten to lock the door…" he smiled then scratched his chin, still not re-buttoning his shorts.

By this time, Tamao found herself all red and flushed.

"G-Gomenasai…" she stuttered nervously as she shut the door and immediately mumbled, "I'll come back later… when you're done with your umm… business."

She then quickly ran away from that room.

The boy laughed from inside the bathroom, not believing his little encounter a while ago. He then sat down the toilet bowl.

*******

Horo Horo laughed animatedly then grinned, _She's a very interesting person… maybe I should go talk to her later…_

Horo looked up at the ceiling then grinned; _maybe I should do that…_

Tapping his feet on the floor, he then hummed a tune he heard from the radio, a grin on his cheerful face. He then checked in front of him if there was tissue paper and indeed, there was.

He looked at it and began brainstorming on what he should say to the prophetess.

*******

Tamao felt her warm face. She was still quite traumatized of what she saw or what she could've saw if she opened that door any later… and that was an understatement. She found herself leaning on the wall not getting the picture of the spiky-haired young man off her innocent and naïve mind.

_I better get some more work done… I'll leave that bathroom for last just in case he takes a long time, just in case._

She then picked up her cleaning items and headed to the living room. She reminded herself to get the mop soon after as well.

She was just on her way when she felt someone tap her shoulder and for herself face to face with a smiling Yoh Asakura. She did her reflex action, she blushed.

"Y-Yoh-sama?" she stuttered as Yoh smiled at her with his usual lazy grin.

"I've noticed you seem to do the household chores here a lot when you visit…" he noted, "Need some help? I can help you, after my deadly training anyway; I'm used to it." He told her as he took the weights from the counter of their living room for his usual run.

"Iie, I'm about to be done anyway, Yoh-sama…" Tamao said; she's willing to do anything for Yoh-sama anyway, "By the way, your friend Horo Horo-kun is in the bathroom…"

"Eh…? I see… oh, leave him there, he must've eaten too much again." Yoh sweatdropped, "It must be because you cook so well!"

"A-Arigato…" Tamao mumbled.

"Then I must be off… Anna would scold me for postponing my training for too long." Yoh smiled and bid goodbye to Tamao who was still blushing profusely.

She nodded, "Take care, Yoh-sama!"

Yoh looked back for a while, "Tell Anna I'll meet Manta so I'd be home late…"

"Hai…"

Yoh then began his sprint when Tamao felt some footsteps approaching her. She turned out to find Anna.

"Eh…? Mistress Anna, why didn't you bid goodbye to Yoh-sama if you were just there?" Tamao asked her confused.

"He would come back, right?" she told Tamao and walked away as she saw it was time for her favorite soap opera but somewhat under her breath she uttered…

"Take care… Yoh."  
  
Tamao smiled as she caught a bit of what Anna said, she had long accepted the fact about Yoh and Anna and Anna and Yoh. They were just meant to be. She then looked down wondering if one day she would find her soul-mate too… but all she saw her cleaning tools causing her to come back to reality.

The reality in which she was supposed to clean the onsen.

*******

Finally finishing doing his business, Horo flushed the toilet when he heard footsteps approaching the door. It seemed to stop when it reached its destination.

He waited for a while then sat down. He listened outside and heard a faint gulp. Only one person would do that…

He grinned the said, "I advise you not to open that, it's locked anyway…"

_I wonder… what kind of person she is… _He thought/

*******

Finding herself back in front of the same bathroom in which she ~almost~ saw something her brain would never want to imagine, she gulped nervously. It's been one hour… there is no way that the young man was still there… umm… you know. She blushed in the thought of the second encounter… she paused before turning the doorknob when she heard a muffled voice from inside…

"I advise you not to open that, it's locked anyway…" a sound came making her stop from opening the door.

"Is that still you?" Tamao said in her high-pitched voice. The question was unreasonable though because it was obvious from his voice.

"Hai… it is times like this I hate, when I'm constipated." The voice replied and sighed soon after.

Tamao sweatdropped, "I see…"

"Anyway, I'm sorry to cause any trouble in your cleaning." He said.

"It's alright…" she replied.

"Ah… by the way, lunch was great a while ago!"

Tamao couldn't help but sweatdrop, "Didn't you almost finish everything?"

"Hey, I leave no food!"  
  


"I can see that…" Tamao said, seemingly not minding that she looked like she was talking to the door.

"Well, would you believe I didn't eat much when I was little?" he asked testily.

"I doubt that…" Tamao said resisting the urge to laugh at the door – that would make her look even more insane… not that anyone was looking.

"Hey, it's true… my mom just scolded me and told me so much people out there don't get anything to eat and I promised to myself I would eat anything I see~!" he said in a sing-song voice.

"I now see the cause of world hunger…" Tamao said softly making sure that he wouldn't be able to hear. He didn't, he was on the other side of the door anyway.

"If you don't believe me, ask my mom! Her number is 9111111!" he exclaimed…

Tamao paused for a while before that clearly registered in her head, "Isn't that the number of pizza hut?"

There was a cough then he said, "Yes… umm… wrong number, we don't have a phone!" he laughed audibly on the other side.

Tamao scowled slightly but smiled. She could see why Yoh-sama liked him as a friend; he has a very interesting personality.

"Hey, are you still there? Don't tell me you actually called the number…" he kidded.

"Hai… I'm still here…" Tamao said as she sat down in a more comfortable position. She had a feeling this would take a while.

"Ah… I see…" he said seemingly running out of jokes so Tamao decided to stir up a conversation…

"So how did you meet Yoh-sama?"

"Interested…?" he said with a ring that Tamao couldn't understand.

"Hai…"

"Well, I met him when he brought me here to eat." He said simply.

"WHAT!?" Tamao exclaimed thinking that Yoh-sama would actually do that when Anna was already in the house.

"Hai… I lost my things and he volunteered to help me find it. In the end, it was actually in the lost and found office would you believe?" he laughed at his own experience.

"That's an odd way to meet…" Tamao noted.

"Who cares, what matters is that I met him, he met me and we became friends…"

_He's right… _Tamao thought as she still stared at the bathroom door, "Are you about to be done?"

"Wanna go in and see?" he said in a teasing way.

Tamao's cheeks flushed, "No thanks…"  
  


"Knew you would say that…" he laughed lightly.

"I guess I'm quite predictable, ne?" Tamao asked.

"There's nothing wrong with that…" he said as he seemed to yawn inside of the bathroom.

"There's nothing right with it either," Tamao sighed audibly.

"Hey, don't sigh… you'd grow old." He commented.

"Why not? I'll get old sooner or later." Another sigh came from the prophetess.

"You'll be an old maid~" He said in his sing song voice again.

"I really don't care; it's not as if I won't be one if I don't." Tamao replied sighing again probably bringing annoyance to the boy on the other side of the door.

"You're to pessimistic that your kind of attitude affects me…" Horo said sighing, "Look; now I'll grow old…"

Tamao just shrugged – even if Horo Horo was on the other side of the door doing his business she seemed so comfortable talking to him… as if he really was in front of her. "Everyone will get old someday."  
  


"I'm not going to – not any day soon." He replied.

"You do… every moment, every second, every millisecond…" Tamao said ominously.

He brushed off the comment, "Hey… how does it feel? Getting to see things that haven't happened yet, I mean." He asked out of the blue.

Tamao paused for a moment to think.

"Hey, you don't have to answer if you don't want to…" he said immediately, "I was just wondering how it feels to be a prophetess… prophet… seer… whatever." He mumbled hurriedly as if, if he didn't it would be the end of the world.

"It feels nice – sometimes and bad on others…" Tamao said, "It's sometimes nice to know I'm needed and I know things others don't – not that I'm being haughty or anything… But, it also hurts because if I predict something bad and I wasn't able to stop it I would just blame it all on my self… because… I couldn't do anything." Tamao said slowly.

*******

_I couldn't do anything… _Tamao's words echoed in his mind.

Horo Horo looked up at the ceiling of the bathroom; he was on an Indian sit, not really doing what he was claiming to do. In truth, he just finished his ~business~ when the prophetess arrived and just wanted to get friendlier with her because he never really interacted with her.

_I somehow can't believe that… _Horo thought as he ran his hand though his spiky blue hair. He was really amazed with her personality – which was about his total opposite. But, it was quite cute that way – very cute.

Before he knew it he began spouting out some worthless nonsense for the prophetess, "You can't help it… Some things are just meant to be that way, I guess…"

A muffled reply came from the other side, "But… sometimes you can't help but feel that way too…"

"I know…" Horo replied, somehow he found what he was saying actually with a point.

_I feel that way now. I don't know why but… but… I want to help you… but… but… I can't_

"However, what matters is that you wanted to help…" Horo said but in a way not believing it himself.

"What matters…?" she said in an asking tone.

"Yeah…" Horo said, "Like for example… what matters in this world is me, because they never saw anyone as 'perfect' as me."

Tamao laughed, and Horo smiled. He somehow managed to lighten up the conversation yet again – as always.

"Um… what matters in the Asakura's is Anna, because she kicks the Shaman King's (Yoh) ass!" Horo laughed.

Tamao only giggled because if she did laugh, Anna might be there.

"What matters in the world is Yoh… because he's Shaman king but of course I just let him get that throne." Horo smirked.

"That's mean! Yoh-sama deserves his title!" Tamao exclaimed.

"Fine, fine… okay now that's settled I'll continue… What matters is Ren because without him there wouldn't be anyone else as fun to beat and tease. What matters is Pirika because she kicks my ass! What matters are you guys, my friends because, well… you know!" Horo's eyes softened as he stood up and re-flushed the toilet to completely fool Tamao, "What matters is you, because without you, I'll have no one to talk with right now and no one I want to protect." Horo said as he opened the door to reveal a blushing Tamao.

"Thanks…" Tamao mumbled.

"What matters… right?" Horo grinned as he gave her a soft hug.

_We may not be lovers – we may just be best of pals… but… what matters is… I know someone like her._

_Someone like Tamao_

**_*Owari*_**

****

Takari-san: I told you it wasn't much of romance but it had quite a drop of it… ^^ remember to sing Horo a happy b-day ^^ I hope you enjoyed ^^ **R/R!**


End file.
